In the past, commercial locations have had primarily two choices with respect to covering accessible utility outlets. A first conventional approach is the conventional faceplate. Faceplates are a particular problem when city codes require the placement of utility outlets (e.g., electrical outlets) in a commercial setting (e.g., accessible to the public) at least because it places a burden on commercial entities to pay for a utility service usage that they did not authorize. That is, conventional faceplates allow anyone to plug into a utility outlet and utilize the available utility. Typical utilities that experience this issue include electricity, phone, and Internet utility services. Most cities provide legal code for how many electrical outlets there need to be in a commercial location and how far apart they should be. However, when it comes to internet (e.g., RJ 45) and phone (e.g., RJ 6) outlets, there, typically, are no regulations; thus, it is relatively easy for commercial entities to block unauthorized access.
A second conventional approach to covering publicly accessible utility outlets is to use a blank faceplate. On occasion commercial locations will place a blank faceplate to cover the outlet to practically block public use. However, these blank faceplates make accessibility difficult for authorized us as well, e.g., housekeeping and maintenance workers.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need for improved techniques for to make publicly accessible utility outlets only available to authorized users. It would further be desirable if the authorization technique also allowed public use that financially benefits the utility outlet owner.
Unless otherwise indicated illustrations in the figures are not necessarily drawn to scale.